This is Water - David Foster Wallace

David Foster Wallace foi um escritor norte-americano. Uma das suas mais contundentes falas, originalmente proferida para os formandos do Kenyon College em 2005, foi transformada no excelente vídeo abaixo, pelo pessoal do The Glossary.

Wallace proporciona uma reflexão visceral sobre consciência (awareness) e percepção autocentrada.

Awareness and self-centered perception.

"everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe... It is our default setting, hard-wired into our boards at birth. Think about it: there is no experience you have had that you are not the absolute center of. The world as you experience it is there in front of YOU or behind YOU, to the left or right of YOU, on YOUR TV or YOUR monitor. And so on. Other people's thoughts and feelings have to be communicated to you somehow, but your own are so immediate, urgent, real".

(...)

"It is about the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over: This is water."